Torcon founder’s sons recall father’s legacy as a visionary in industry

Benedict J. Torcivia Sr. led Torcon’s transition during the 1980s from a general contractor into a construction management firm that increasing took on large, complex projects for pharmaceutical companies and colleges.

Torcivia led Torcon’s transition during the 1980s from a general contractor into a construction-management firm that increasingly took on large, complex projects for pharmaceutical companies and colleges. And he prepared the company’s transition to the next generation: he brought sons Ben Jr. and Joseph Torcivia into the company nearly 20 years ago, and gradually turned over the reins to his sons, now co-presidents of Torcon.

Ben said he learned from his father “the importance of maintaining a very good reputation, in terms of your company’s performance and your ability to meet commitments. … He wanted to do repeat business with customers, rather than have to constantly find new customers.”

It was that focus on getting repeat business that would eventually lead Torcon to expand outside of New Jersey; today, the Red Bank-based company has offices in Philadelphia and Puerto Rico. After Torcon built an operations center in Rutherford for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, for instance, the company was hired to build similar centers for Federal Reserve banks in Cleveland and Atlanta.

Phil Fischer, chief financial officer of Torcon, said it was Torcivia’s vision to develop Torcon from a construction contractor into a construction-management company during the 1980s.

“He had the vision to see the change in the nature of projects, and to develop an organization that could address the new business environment,” Fischer said. Torcivia saw the future in “managing the global interrelationship between the owner, architect and constructor in the framework of what was to be known as construction-management services.”

Among the signature projects Torcon built under Torcivia’s leadership were Gateway Center, in Newark; Exchange Place Center, in Jersey City; and the Short Hills Hilton and Office Center, in Millburn. The company has done work for most of the pharmaceutical companies in New Jersey, including Johnson & Johnson, Schering-Plough (now part of Merck & Co.) and Pfizer. The company’s work in higher education included building the Whitman College at Princeton University.

Ben, 55, said his father began transitioning the company to him and his brother Joe, 52, about 19 years ago, when his father was in his early 60s. “He had a deep belief that if the company was going to survive the next generation, he had to let us take over while he was still around to provide guidance.” His father continued to provide his advice, following his retirement to Jupiter, Fla., during the 1980s, by phone and during trips back to New Jersey.

Joe Torcivia said his father had to overcome the challenge, when he first founded the company, of getting on bid lists and forming relationships with architects who would recommend him for jobs. Born in Paterson, the son of a barber, Benedict Torcivia graduated from Catholic University in 1951 with a degree in architectural engineering, and worked on public construction jobs before deciding to make the transition to the private sector by founding Torcon in 1965.

“He was a student of family business — he knew one of the big reasons family businesses fail is for the patriarch or the founder to be reluctant to transition leadership, and guys hang on too long. He didn’t want to be one of those guys.”

Torcon has more than $400 million in annual revenue and 200 employees, and Joe Torcivia called the company “the legacy (his father) created.” He said his father’s goal was to “be the builder of choice for New Jersey businesses. And he would turn down work — if he didn’t think he could do a job in a way that would make a client happy, he would turn down the job.”